Airflow and Cooling
Arranging servers and cooling units so that cooling is efficient and effective is important. The common method of cooling is utilizing rack-mounted fans. A “hot/cold aisle” design is the most efficient method. Server racks will be arranged in long rows with space between them. On one side of the server, cool air will be sent along the “cold-isle”. Server mounted fans will draw this into the rack while on the opposite side of the row, server fans will expel the hot air into the “hot-aisle”. The hot air is then sent out of the room.
Humidification
Humidification is usually the most wasteful component of data center designs. Today's servers can tolerate a range of humidity between 20%-80%. A safe humidity control range is 30%-70%. The most sensitive equipment tends to be the magnetic tape rather than the servers themselves. An efficient humidification plan would involve a central unit and would allow for seasonal changes.
Power Supply
Data centers consume a lot of electrical power. This power is delivered from the grid as 400 volts AC but the circuits within the IT equipment run on DC 6 -12 volts. This means the voltage has to be first reduced by a transformer and then Converted from AC to DC by a rectifier. This is usually done by a power supply unit (PSU) within each piece of IT equipment, but is highly inefficient and adds to the waste heat. Furthermore the power will probably already have been converted from AC to DC and back again within a UPS (see below) so the losses are doubled.
Cabling Pathways
Server organization and cabling is very important for a data center. Cabling should be organized in such a way that individual racks can be disconnected easily from the system. Separation of power and data cables is essential to prevent interference. Cabling, is expected be replaced every 15-20 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment